The Census 2011 report released on Tuesday confirmed that close to 80 percent of the residents in Gauteng live in brick or concrete structures and on their own plot.

The results emerged as a perfect match to that of the GCRO Quality of Life Survey deduced from 17 000 sample of Gauteng residents released earlier this year, which is by far, still the largest social survey of its kind.

The Census report comprised the percentage distribution of households by type of main dwelling and access to basic services by province, drawing a comparison among Census results of 1996, 2001 and 2011.

This direct co-relation of results and improvement in human settlement condition did not come as a surprise as during the tabling of the Department of Local Government and Housing’s 2011/2012 Annual Report in September, MEC Ntombi Mekgwe highlighted a number of strategies and programmes that can arguably be linked to these Census results.

She pinpointed programmes such as the urban renewal, the mixed housing developments and the private/public partnership like Gauteng Partnership Fund as key to the human settlement improvement.

Mekgwe said the province has delivered more than 16 266 houses during the financial year 2011/2012.

Despite the in-migration challenges that the MEC alluded to, Gauteng has seen a significant 5 percent drop in informal dwellings, moving from 23.9 percent in 2001 to 18.9 in 2011.

This decline can also be attributed to the province’s mission to eradicate informal settlements.

Moreover, the results showed a staggering 15.4 percent increase in electrified households which can also be linked to the reported 8 955 stands that have been serviced as part of the informal settlement eradication.

Currently 87.4 percent of households in Gauteng have electricity while 98.2 percent of the total 12.2 million residents have access to piped, potable water.

The all-important Census 2011 results have reaffirmed the findings of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory GCRO Quality of Life Survey reports the Gauteng Provincial Government “In many respects what is surprising about the results is how unsurprising they are,” the GCRO said on Wednesday